<p>My daughter will be applying to both Art schools and Universities offering art degrees. She has been working on her portfolio for a while and has the input of her art instructors. We are considering going to one of the National Portfolio Days. Can anyone comment on whether they found this event to be helpful. Do you think it will truly provide guidance that she is not getting from her various art instructors, all of whom know her goals. THANKS!!</p>
<p>If it not too difficult a trip, I would encourage your daughter to attend simply for the fact that she can have one on one contact with representatives from varying schools throughout the country and show them her actual work, rather than what she will include at application time. My daughter attended the event some year's back at the encouragement of her art teacher and she had an lengthy, albeit informal, talk with the rep from Washington University which led to showing him her work. She was admitted to their program and offered merit support. Although she ultimately chose another school, we were convinced her interaction helped her with admission.</p>
<p>NPD is very helpful, in fact if certain schools are impressed, they will encourage you to apply, which usually means you have a good chance of being accepted. In many cases they will 'accept' the portfolio on the spot, which means that they just need all the usual paper work, transcripts, etc, to do school acceptance.</p>
<p>if you apply to an art school can..you have your portfolio reviewed at NPD instead of making slides and sending them to the schools?</p>
<p>Jacksonfire09, I think it depends on the school. The schools my daughter is looking at - Boston Univ, Carnegie Mellon, RISD and Wash U - all say on their websites that they'll be at the NPD events (well, except for BU), but they all require applicants to mail in or upload their portfolio pieces by their deadline. </p>
<p>(CMU "strongly recommends" an in-person review session, offered on certain dates, and BU likewise offers on-campus review days. And portfolio submission for Wash U is optional unless you want to apply for a College of Art scholarship.)</p>
<p>I strongly recommend going to NPD. My daughter did as a sophomore, and will do so again the next two years. We tell people who have no experience with applying to art school that it's like the SAT's of art -- it's where you can demonstrate ability to schools, and going when you're an underclassman is like taking the SAT a few times to warm up. Our family's suggestions to make the best of it: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Look at the list of schools who are coming to your NPD and think about which ones you might be interested in. You can't realistically be seen by more than a few schools, so it helps to prioritize them in advance. </p></li>
<li><p>Bring your sketchbooks as well as finished work. </p></li>
<li><p>Be prepared to be seen by schools you didn't plan on seeing, if their lines are short. </p></li>
<li><p>The student should prepare to be asked about their interests, focus, which work they like best, etc. NPD isn't just about standing there mute while someone looks at your work; instead, a dialogue happens. My daughter is much more able to talk about her influences, what her goals are, what she's working on now than before the first NPD she went to, because she knows she's going to be asked about it. </p></li>
<li><p>Don't get freaked out if some folks are more negative than others. The reviewers are a wide range of ages, personalities, and temperments. For example, my daughter was being reviewed at the Parsons table by a really sweet helpful woman, while at the other end of the table, another reviewer was chewing a student a new one about her composition and technique. They were in the same grade and stuff -- it appears the other guy was just more brusque. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>My daughter got a lot of very helpful tips and information about organizing her portfolio from the NPD reps. Many schools also hand out application fee waivers -- pieces of paper that make it free to apply. That's <em>very</em> helpful for our family.</p>
<p>Thanks for that advice, TrinSF. My D, a senior, will go to her first NPD on Oct 11. I wish we/she had known about all of this "art stuff" she should have been doing over the last couple of years - going to NPD, entering Scholastic Art & Writing, attending pre-college art programs after 9th or 10th grade, etc. She's working like mad to catch up. Anyway, thanks again.</p>
<p>For you parents and students who have been to a NPD... what's a parent's role that day? Just stay far, far away and let your student do his/her thing? Stay nearby but basically be seen and not heard? Is it inappropriate to ask the college rep there some financial aid questions, for example? All but one of the schools my (senior) daughter is interested in will be there next weekend.</p>
<p>The best thing you could do is wait on one line while you D is on another. The lines, particularly at the popular schools, can get very long to but it mildly. So if you can get a head start on one of the longer lines, while your D is on a shorter line, you can speed things up.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if original artwork is required at NPD events? Most of my portfolio pieces are either framed or otherwise not available to take to the event but I have good quality scans of all of my work that I have used to make prints on standard sized matte photo paper. Would the representatives there be willing to take a look at my printed portfolio or would it be a waste of time to go?</p>
<p>From NPD's website:
Your portfolio can include finished pieces, work in progress, and sketchbooks. We ask you to bring your original artwork whenever possible. We suggest that you do not spend time and money matting or framing your work. Keep your presentation simple; the work itself is what is of interest to us.
You may bring your portfolio on a CD or DVD. However, some colleges may have a laptop to view your content, others may not. It is in your best interest to bring your own laptop to assure that your work is seen by everyone.
NOTE: There is no guarantee that any venue will have public acess to electricity, therefore make sure your laptop battery is charged and consider bringing an extra battery.</p>
<p>NPD can be great -- kids sometimes get accepted on the spot. It can also be discouraging to some. A friend of my daughter's was really down afterwards because most of the schools didn't like his work. One school, a good one, was crazy about it, but he only noticed the ones that weren't. Another kid was discouraged from applying to her top choice school because the reviewer gave a "crit" rather than a "like it"/"don't like it." A crit, as given in art school is a real in depth critique of the work. This kid took it to mean that he didn't like her work, even though he said at the end that he hoped to see her at the school in question! So you might want to prepare your D for some of this. </p>
<p>And she should definitely bring her sketchbooks. Some schools look at them very seriously.</p>
<p>Best thing a parent can do is stand on line. I let my DD do all her talking and showing. I stayed out of ear lenght. Pick your schools first but dont be surprised if they see something interesting and want to stand in line for another. NPD is an exercise for gathering critique and what you can do to improve your final portfolio. Rarely do they approve on NPD. Be wary of those that do. Stand by and be prepared to comfort the kid afterwards. Bring a phone ( ON VIBRATE) because some short lines take forever and some long lines have sudden speed ups'.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the tips, you guys! I'll definitely stand in one of the longer lines while my D is in a shorter line. If it's as crowded as you say, I guess we should get there right when it starts.</p>
<p>Good idea, too, to warn her in advance that some of the reviewers could be less than encouraging.</p>
<p>I plan on attending my first NPD in about a month, for black and white film photography. </p>
<p>How many prints do you think they expect from a photo portfolio? 10? 15?</p>
<p>Also, I'm guessing they want 8x10s, right?</p>
<p>Going to NPD is definitely helpful.
I went yesterday for the first time, and brought a variety of work with me-
writing, book art, photography, drawing, graphic design.
I saw SMFA, purchase, CCA, and Montserrat.
the rep at Montserrat was by far the most personable,
and she went through every single piece I brought and gave it a mini critique. </p>
<p>Before attending, I had an idea of what portfolios were to include in general, but it's very nice to know what a specific school hunts for in a potential student! And surprisingly, the SMFA lady was perfectly okay with my drawings being from pictures.
they all stressed the same thing: that I am doing remarkably well for someone with a horrible school art program-I am the only advanced art kid out of 3000 students, so most days I do art history for first block- and that's what counts. For example, they aren't going to put me up to bat against someone who's been in good school programs and private lessons.</p>
<p>NPD is coming to our area in November. My daughter is a sophmore in high school, and her art teacher is suggesting that her class go to it. My daughter's portfolio is pretty wimpy right now, but she does have work to show. Is it worth it for her to go? I figure any input can be helpful. Will they even look at it?</p>
<p>Yes, GO. It's very helpful, even for sophomores, even with "wimpy stuff". She doesn't need a portfolio, she can just bring sketchbooks. At that age, they don't need (or even want) to see a finished portfolio; they want to see the raw stuff, the doodling and not-for-class work. </p>
<p>I would suggest not spending hours in the big lines (RISD, Pratt, MICA) but instead, focus on hitting 5-8 tables of a wide range. It was more useful to get a range of responses to the work than to wait a long time for a top school -- there will be time enough for that later. Some of the schools, like SAIC, had separate review people for underclassmen, to focus more on what they could to build their skills. </p>
<p>Really, get your daughter to assemble all her scraps and anything she has into a rough sketchbook, and go. You won't regret it.</p>